So What?

There's a classic Doonesbury cartoon from the Southeast Asia war period in which Phred The Terrorist is interviewing some Cambodian peasants and asks them about the "secret bombing" of Cambodia.

"Secret bombings?" the farmer scoffs. "There wasn't any secret about them. Everyone here knew. I did, and my wife, she knew, too. She was with me and I remarked on them. I said, 'Look, Martha. Here come the bombs."

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This is what came to mind this afternoon when the president actually used the word "torture" when he was talking about how our government tortured people in our name. He used the word. Big fking deal.

Even before I came into office, I was very clear that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong. We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values. I understand why it happened. I think it's important when we look back to recall how afraid people were after the twin towers fell and the Pentagon had been hit and the plane in Pennsylvania had fallen and people did not know whether more attacks were imminent and there was enormous pressure on our law enforcement and our national security teams to try to deal with this. And, you know, it's important for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job that those folks had. A lot of those folks were working hard under enormous pressure and are real patriots, but having said all that, we did some things that were wrong. And that's what that report reflects.

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And then he expressed full confidence in John Brennan, who was hip-deep in the torture regime, and under whose auspices the CIA hacked into the computers of the Senate committee. The above may be the single most revolting thing this president ever said in public. Quite simply, nobody who engaged in torture, nobody who worked to establish a legal rationale for torture, nobody who applauded torture or encouraged it or welcomed its practice, has any right to be referred to by anyone, let alone the president, as a patriot. Most of the torture went on long after we knew that there weren't going to be follow-up acts of terror. Much of it was used to get information with which to gin up an illegal war of aggression against a country that had not attacked us. The lies of Iraq were seeded with torture, and if the president thinks he can use the word and then just walk away from its profound implication in a cloud of banalities, he's been out on the golf course without a hat too long.